Ok, I admit it, this week I just couldn’t do it...I just couldn’t drag us out in this weather! Last week it was truckloads of snow, this week we’re drowning in rain and mud. We made an honest attempt to go out in our backyard on Monday, but between the ankle high mud and brrrrr cold temps, we did an about face and marched right back inside. So, this week we took the "inside approach" to nature study, which honestly turned out to be a lot of fun too!

Our focus area pick from last week was birds, however as you will see from my recent postings we had a lot of gardening-type things going on too! But for this post, I will center on our bird studies. Here’s a rundown on the things we did.

For Objective #1 we were to begin keeping a running list of our observations from our focus area. So we spent some time this week observing our bird feeders and the woods behind our home and began recording our observations on our lists.

We plan on taking every opportunity we can to add to them, especially when we can get out in the great outdoors again! Oh, what is it like for you lucky nature-lovin’ folks who live in wonderful weather year-round?!! Ok, I‘m just being jealous! I really do love it here.

Ok, moving right along to Objective #2. We were of course supposed to take our outside nature walk and observe using our senses. But, what I did, was during our "from inside the house bird observation time," we opened the window for a few moments and listened to the sounds, looked closely around and observed the birds in the trees as well, and had meaningful conversations. It was really very peaceful, lots of beautiful bird sounds, cute squirrels running all around (and tearing up my feeders!), the drip drop of rain falling, and the sights and sounds of the rushing water in the creek. It was as if the floodgates had been opened and all the water was racing together to reach the finish line! The rushing water of the creek is truly a sight and sound to be deeply observed right now, because during the drier summer months it pretty well stays almost dried up; so that is very exciting.

Objective #3 was to add anything new that we observed during this time, which we have mostly done; I have a few more things for us to add.

For Objective #4, we we’re to give an opportunity for a nature journal entry. Alex chose to draw a picture of an American Robin. As you can see in the picture, he showed it first picking a worm out of the ground and then flying up to her babies in the nest. Hannah chose to do a bird journal sheet for the Northern Cardinal.  We also did a Northern Cardinal bird study that I organized to use.

In addition to the things above we also had a lesson one day on the Red-Tailed Hawk. Click here to listen to their sound.  We have been very blessed to have a pair that are nesting nearby and we have been able to observe them frequently. We have affectionately named them Rusty and Ruby. You can keep up with my blog entry on that here. So we read from the Handbook of Nature Study about Hawks which was so very interesting (as always). Our favorite thing we learned was the following:

That’s so cool! How would you like to have vision that good?!

The kids also pulled out the paints one evening (insert nervous Mom symbol here!) and gathered some rocks along the driveway, and painted nature pictures on them.

That wraps it up for us this week. Have a beautiful and blessed week. And may all your nature adventures be filled with many precious moments.

If you are interested in jumping on board with these wonderful Green Hour Challenges, head on over to Barb's blog at The Heart of Harmony.